Elizabeth Reuter's Blog - Posts Tagged "sean-of-the-dead"
Horror-comedy from Great Britain.
Sean of the Dead set the standard for horror comedy from Great Britain, but recently it has some challengers, both of which I was lucky enough to view this month: Grabbers from Ireland, and Attack the Block from England.
Grabbers is best described as Tremors with alcohol. Little island off the Irish coast is beset by tentacle monsters that travel through water, and are poisoned by alcohol. To survive the night, the entire island must get as drunk as possible. It’s a very Irish sort of monster movie, and the movie itself is aware of this; there’s a great scene where an Irish cop, not listening to a British scientist studying the monsters, winds up reviving a downed monster which then attacks him. “You,” the British scientist sighs, “you are really Irish aren’t you.”
(This scientist is played by Russell Tovey, by the way, star of the wonderful British monster TV show Being Human. He is known for brainy, neurotic, adorable characters, and does them so well, but has stated his desire for darker roles he can break type with. I hope he gets the chance, because he’s yet to be anything but wonderful in everything I’ve seen him in.)
Then there’s Attack the Block, best described as “poor kids vs. aliens.” The social commentary is obvious—“useless” kids society looks down upon save the world from a greater, outside menace—but the story didn’t beat us over the head with its message, and was both exciting and funny as all hell. It apparently launched the careers of half its actors, and did everything right on a shoe-string budget. With Hollywood currently stumbling under the weight of bloated blockbusters no one has gone to see, maybe a few lessons can be learned here.
Like: GIVE US GOOD SCRIPTS AND GOOD ACTING, HOLLYWOOD. SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE GREAT, BUT YOU STILL NEED GOOD SCRIPTS AND GOOD ACTING.
Easy.
-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive
Grabbers is best described as Tremors with alcohol. Little island off the Irish coast is beset by tentacle monsters that travel through water, and are poisoned by alcohol. To survive the night, the entire island must get as drunk as possible. It’s a very Irish sort of monster movie, and the movie itself is aware of this; there’s a great scene where an Irish cop, not listening to a British scientist studying the monsters, winds up reviving a downed monster which then attacks him. “You,” the British scientist sighs, “you are really Irish aren’t you.”
(This scientist is played by Russell Tovey, by the way, star of the wonderful British monster TV show Being Human. He is known for brainy, neurotic, adorable characters, and does them so well, but has stated his desire for darker roles he can break type with. I hope he gets the chance, because he’s yet to be anything but wonderful in everything I’ve seen him in.)
Then there’s Attack the Block, best described as “poor kids vs. aliens.” The social commentary is obvious—“useless” kids society looks down upon save the world from a greater, outside menace—but the story didn’t beat us over the head with its message, and was both exciting and funny as all hell. It apparently launched the careers of half its actors, and did everything right on a shoe-string budget. With Hollywood currently stumbling under the weight of bloated blockbusters no one has gone to see, maybe a few lessons can be learned here.
Like: GIVE US GOOD SCRIPTS AND GOOD ACTING, HOLLYWOOD. SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE GREAT, BUT YOU STILL NEED GOOD SCRIPTS AND GOOD ACTING.
Easy.
-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive
Elizabeth Reuter's Blog
As a huge fan of dark fantasy, horror, and the like, that's most of what I'll write about here. Most horror/fantasy/sci-fi is badly made, and there's this silly idea that that means the genres themsel
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